News and Prophecy Staff

Anticipating that the Muslim Brotherhood (who would revoke Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel) might gain power in Egypt, the Israeli government recently signed a security agreement with Germany.  The agreement will expand cooperation in combating crime, terrorism and violent extremism.

Reports from the Middle East note, “There is something happening in the Arab world.  A collective voice is being heard again… rarely has there been a moment when the Middle East felt so interconnected, governments so unpopular and Arabs so overwhelmingly agree on their demand for change… The Middle East is being drawn together by economic woes and a shared resentment that people have been denied dignity and respect… For the first time in a generation…a somewhat nostalgic notion of a common 

In 2005 a U.S. federal court struck down a motion to teach “intelligent design” along with the federally mandated topic of evolution.  Since then, scientists and educators have developed evolution-based curricula to counter the growing movement questioning the validity of evolutionary theory (Education Week, November 16, 2010).  In 2008, the Council of Europe “condemned all attempts to bring creationism into Europe’s schools” (USA Today, February 11, 2008).

The “Tunisian wind” that toppled an authoritarian regime in Tunisia is spawning similar protests across the Arab world.

The record rains that flooded huge parts of Australia’s northeast state of Queensland are now moving across the southeast state of Victoria toward the sea.  The flood waters have created an “inland sea” some 55 miles long and 24 miles wide that has closed coal mines and swamped large areas of valuable agricultural land—in what has become “the nation’s most expensive natural disaster in history” (telegraph.co.uk, January 24, 2011).  Across the Indian Ocean, flooding in eight of South Africa’s nine provinces has saturated farms and disrupted rail transport, which has affected coal, m